With the sun setting on 2025, we’ve been musing on what new and exciting changes for credit cards, points and miles may arrive in 2026. The past year featured enough product launches, card refreshes and program changes to make our heads spin, so we’re eager to see if that momentum continues into the new year.
I reached out to some of my fellow credit card experts here at TPG to see what they think about the ways our industry might change in 2026. Here are our thoughts.
Refreshes of mid-tier credit cards
2025 ushered in refreshes of three of the most popular premium credit cards on the market: the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees), the American Express Platinum Card® and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
With those out of the way, both TPG credit cards writer Augusta Stone and I believe we’ll see issuers focus on their mid-tier products next.
I anticipate Chase to turn its attention to the beloved Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees). We’ll likely see an annual fee increase up to around $150, and at least one or two new statement credits to account for that.
This would be in line with what we’ve seen Chase do before, such as when it refreshed the United℠ Explorer Card (see rates and fees) and increased its fee from $95 to $150 (after the first cardholder year).
In Augusta’s opinion, the American Express® Green Card definitely “needs a refresh.” She noted that the Amex Platinum and American Express® Gold Card both received refreshes in the past couple of years, so it makes sense for it to be the Amex Green’s turn. The Amex Green’s loss of its LoungeBuddy benefit without a replacement makes Augusta think Amex may be ready to give it a new coat of paint.
The information for the American Express Green Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Continuing devaluations of loyalty program transfer rates
Worsening transfer ratios are a relatively new trend this year, albeit an unfortunate one. Amex and Citi both devalued their Emirates Skywards transfer ratios. Plus, Amex announced a coming reduction of its Cathay Pacific Asia Miles transfer ratio.
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Lead writer Katie Genter and senior writer Ben Smithson — two of TPG’s top points and miles experts — believe this trend will continue into 2026. Ben labeled it “worrying” and said he fears it will become more widespread.
Katie agreed, but while she suspects some programs will continue to change transfer ratios to be less than 1:1, she also believes that Chase will maintain a 1:1 ratio for all of its programs, as it’s a point of pride for the issuer.
The development of transfer ratio devaluations underscores a point we often make here at TPG: Don’t hoard your points and miles. You never know when they’ll become less valuable, so redeem them for travel now.
Increased emphasis on issuer travel portals
We’ve seen issuers show a more vested interest in their travel portals this year — particularly Chase. Alongside its refresh of the Sapphire Reserve, Chase introduced Points Boost to encourage eligible cardholders to make more bookings through its platform, Chase Travel℠.
Augusta and Ben both believe that we’ll see this turn into a proper trend in 2026. Ben said that with card issuers’ travel portals becoming more complex, he expects to see more incentives, like high redemption values to book within the card issuer’s ecosystem rather than transfer externally.
He warned, however, that cardholders should remember that it can be more expensive to book through a travel portal.
Augusta believes that Points Boost will ignite a new issuer initiative to launch competing benefits. She highlighted Amex, Capital One and Citi as the likely contenders to release a perk that competes with Points Boost. I expect Amex to be the first to bat with this, since it’s Chase’s closest competitor.
More dynamically priced awards, less time to snag them
Most airline loyalty programs use dynamic pricing at this point, but we largely haven’t seen them use it for tickets that aren’t on their own metal.
Ben believes we’ll see this occur on a larger scale in 2026. He noted Air Canada Aeroplan’s use of dynamic pricing for United and Emirates awards as a good example. He views this as a potentially negative development, warning that we could see long-haul first class Emirates flights as high as 400,000 points for a single flight, for example.
Alongside the looming threat of astronomically priced awards, Katie thinks we’ll have less time to snag the redemptions we want. She’s seen a trend of award availability disappearing rapidly, even if she acts immediately upon receiving an availability alert. With more and more people investing in points and miles, Katie said it’ll only become harder to find good value redemptions.
Still, though, she encourages everyone to stay on the hunt for good deals.
Card launches galore
While 2025 did see the launch of a handful of new credit cards, the news cycle felt largely dominated by prominent card refreshes. 2026 could very well demonstrate the opposite, with high-visibility product launches.
I’m expecting Chase’s highly anticipated premium World of Hyatt card to arrive in 2026. As someone who predominantly stays with Hyatt, I’ll be paying close attention to any movement here.
Bilt has already confirmed major changes to its credit card lineup as it shifts to a partnership with Cardless. Given Bilt plans to launch three brand-new cards as part of its Cardless debut, it’s very likely its new suite of card products will become one of the biggest talking points of 2026.
The information for the Bilt Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Augusta also thinks we may finally see Chase launch a proper competitor to the Amex Gold. This is something I’ve been asking for as long as I can remember, since the Amex Gold currently lacks a true competitor from any of the major issuers.
Related: Why Chase needs a competitor to the Amex Gold
More welcome bonus restrictions
We saw Chase undertake an initiative this year to restrict the ability of existing and previous cardholders to earn fresh welcome bonuses on consumer Sapphire and certain Ink products. Capital One also made it harder for certain people to earn bonuses on its Venture products.
Katie believes we’ll see this unfortunate trend continue, with issuers prioritizing family rules and personalized offers. For example, I believe we could see Chase expand its recent restrictions on Sapphire and Ink welcome bonuses to their cobranded cards.
We may also see other issuers adopt American Express’s strategy of offering a range of welcome offers for individual cards, versus a fixed offer.
Additional restrictions on lounge access
Lounge access is one of the most beloved benefits on credit cards. In recent times, we’ve seen issuers place restrictions on access, such as Capital One’s upcoming rule changes for its Capital One lounges. While frustrating for cardholders, these changes are a response to growing complaints about wait times and overcrowding.
Katie thinks that we’ll continue to see lounge owners place restrictions on access. She noted that while lounge access is a favorite benefit, once you have it, you may run into long lines or crowded lounges, which isn’t a premium experience. For that reason, she sees lounge owners prioritizing ways to limit access and reduce crowding.
AI infiltrates credit cards
Associate credit cards writer Stephanie Stevens has been musing a lot on AI. She believes that credit card issuers will start using AI to assist them with creating targeted, dynamic welcome offers for prospective cardholders. She also thinks AI will be used to manage lounge waitlists and overcrowding.
Of course, introducing AI into anything raises security and privacy concerns, especially when it is granted access to sensitive financial data. It remains to be seen where and how issuers will embrace these tools.
Bottom line
2026 is sure to be an exciting year. We expect plenty of attention-grabbing developments — some positive, some negative. Regardless of what happens, one thing remains the same: Points and miles are the best way to unlock amazing travel experiences.
We’ll still be here to help you do that, no matter what next year brings.
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